THE frustration being felt by communities across the Murray-Darling basin is at boiling point.
Farmers and their supporters will take their frustration to Canberra in the coming weeks in a bid to convince the federal government to “pause and fix” the Muray-Darling Basin Plan (MDBP).
Barham irrigator and rally co-organiser John Lolicato said the aim of the convoy was to highlight that the current system is “failing regional Australia”.
“It’s to wake up all politicians and make them aware that the basin plan is killing our regional communities,” Mr Lolicato told The Guardian.
“Yes, we’ve had politicians come to our region, tick the boxes, but they’ve left and haven’t done anything.”
Mr Lolicato said while it was against regional nature to go to the extreme of organising a protest, basin communities were fed up with being ignored.
“It’s gotten so serious that we need to get the urban public to understand that our current government is dividing our communities,” he said.
“Despite our outcries and ongoing drought conditions, they continue to pull resources from our communities and it is seriously reducing our ability to remain productive.”
Mr Lolicato said the MDBP was not only destroying farmers ability to produce food and fibre, but also limiting opportunities for the future generation.
“As an irrigator, I can sell my entitlements and make a lot of money, but the bottom line is, every megalitre that leaves our community to go to the environment or to water traders, impacts the community that I live in,” he said.
“Not only is it taking away the fact that I am not buying fuel, fertiliser and other things locally, but it also takes away the fact that I’m no longer paying as much tax because I’m not growing the produce.
“It’s impacting the communities and opportunities for the next generation to be able to become productive food and fibre producers.”
Mr Lolicato said the MDBP had continually “worn people out” and eventually “more and more people will give up”.
“There is still five billion dollars remaining in the basin plan and while that money is still there, it will continue to divide our communities even more,” he said.
“The basin plan has to be haltered, we’ve been with this plan for seven years of implementation, but it hasn’t worked.”
With thousands of people attending MDBP rally’s in Albury and Tocumwal earlier this year, Mr Lolicato said he expected attendance to be “quite large” in Canberra.
“People are beside themselves and it’s not just about the irrigators, it’s more about the communities that rely on irrigated agriculture in order to survive,” he said.
The convoy will assemble in Yass at the Caltex Service station at 11am on Monday December 2.
It will then travel to Canberra where a “water embassy” will be established in Federation Mall and a vigil will begin.
